Pauly Shore's "Natural Born Komics" Comedy Sketch Movie MIAMI, the DVD is in stores March 25th, 2008.
Pauly's been around a long time. When we first met I was a young office music drone at TRIAD Artists talent agency in the eighties, and he was a pocket client of the big comedy agent who booked Sam Kinison, Roseanne Barr and Louis Anderson. I took care of Pauly for concert tickets.
"You gave me free tickets to shows," as Shore's memory kicked in while we spoke. "You were nice to me. Those were some interesting days."
Indeed, and his career so far has been defined by one lucrative character that he has milked to the nth degree: The Weiz.
The Weiz and his various distillations have grossed an awful lot of money for Hollywood, but little respect for the kid who cut his teeth in his parent's famous Sunset Strip room witnessing the performances of the best comic minds of the last century.
"I want to do more drama, and play more serious roles; I would love to portray Lenny Bruce or some other iconic comedian on film. It's finding the right people and projects that's tricky," Shore told me from New York. "I want to do more serious stuff along with the stand up, the comedy."
Shore was quick to let me know about some of his other upcoming projects. "I have a cool movie coming up called 'Opposite Day' where I play a dad with two kids, and Dick Van Patten plays my dad; it's a kid friendly film coming out this summer."
Although he still has a trademark laconic and leaden delivery, Shore is no slacker. He is in New York on a promotional junket to celebrate "Natural Born Komics", the follow up of "Pauly Shore is Dead."
Also, in the viral world a video is circulating of a seemingly miffed Shore "caught" bitching that because he not black, he isn't getting his fair share of audiences that Charlie Murphy, Katt Williams and other comics are getting.
This is all planned and part of his schtick. Internet savvy Shore has a DVD to promote, and Murphy even helps him out in a segment that mocks Ashton Kutcher's "Punk'd" MTV show.
"Natural Born Komics" is a meandering pastiche of segments, bits, segues and rants featuring Shore's take on the crap American reality television series bumper crop, as if Jerry Springer was his producer. He also goofs on John McEnroe, Greta Van Susteren and even himself (as his old character "The Weiz") in one moment to the next.
His sidekicks, notably the talented Kirk Fox, do a good job portraying hard-suffering "employees" who bitch and moan about the lack of perks working for Shore.
The DVD is a "Girls Gone Wild" style frenetic mash of hidden camera gags (Cockblockers), reality TV parodies (Cheaters and Spunk'd), random beach molestations of sun dazed unwitting females, stand-up and some music.
His frame-by-frame ode to the film "Scarface" with actor Steven Bauer was my favorite part of the DVD.
"Yeah I loved doing that, we reenacted each scene down to every little detail, I really enjoyed putting that together, and how it was directed. I wanted to capture that scene and I think it worked nicely,that was my favorite part too," revealed Shore.
Miami, South Beach and it's crown jewel of Versace's Casa Casuarina were the eye candy scenic backdrops for Shore's traveling circus, and I asked him where was his next visually target-rich environment for his comedy troupe.
"I want to do this in Vegas, that city is a perfect staging area for this kind of comedy, there's so much going on, it's a fun town. Vegas represents craziness and you can get away with murder there."
Pauly Shore's Natural Born Komics Sketch Comedy Movie: Miami is now available for pre-order at Amazon. As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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